Más Madrid has been presented this Tuesday as a popular accusation in the case of the purchase of a penthouse for 6.3 million euros by the Community of Madrid for a use that has not yet been completely clear. The matter pursues Isabel Díaz Ayuso politically and may now do so judicially in September as well. “If the reported facts are true, an activity would be being investigated that would presumably have violated the general interest of citizens in the face of criminal and inadmissible behavior on the part of the Administration,” reads the document presented by Más Madrid and to which this newspaper has had access.
The opposition party with the largest representation in the Madrid Assembly has requested to be part of the procedure that was opened two weeks ago by the investigative court number 8 following the complaints presented to the Prosecutor's Office by the PSOE, European Justice and two individuals. In April, Planifica Madrid, a public company, acquired the property without announcing it, nor did the Government of Madrid. It remained hidden until EL PAÍS revealed it. Ayuso said after the exclusive that in that penthouse, at number 35 General Martínez Campos Street, he was going to temporarily set up his office due to some works at the current headquarters of which at that time there was no news. The PSOE also released its indictment this Tuesday, based on the complaint it already presented on August 7.
The president of Madrid denied that it was her presidential residence. The fact is that, with the law in hand, it cannot be used for one thing or the other. The file that Planifica Madrid should have opened at the time should reveal all the details of the operation, but the Government has refused to show it for the moment. Ayuso has given explanations on several occasions, but on the last one he assured that it must be the advisor to the Presidency, Miguel Ángel García Martín, who solves all the mysteries surrounding this case.
Manuela Bergerot, the spokesperson for Más Madrid in the Assembly, has charged against the president after registering the letter in the courts: "Ayuso has been in free fall since the attic case was uncovered and her story has been absolutely lost. She knows that nothing is going to work to cover up the scandal, not even a confrontation with the President of the Government. Ayuso is exhausted. She has nothing to say about Madrid and the jokes with which she tries to defend herself turn against her." Bergerot demands that “each and every document documenting the purchase of ultra-luxury” be published and has no doubt that the responsibility for purchasing it lies with “Isabel Díaz Ayuso.” “And all of Spain knows that,” he says.
According to a document from Más Madrid, the facts, indirectly, could constitute the alleged crimes of administrative prevarication, embezzlement of public funds in the form of unfair administration, fraud against the administration and unfair administration of public assets. The secrecy with which the operation was carried out arouses suspicion: Although the operation was apparently formalized before a notary - generating the corresponding taxes and expenses, as well as the intermediation commission of the participating real estate company - it was carried out opaquely, in the most absolute silence and without any subjection to the legally established procedure and therefore mandatory compliance for the acquisition with public money of a property by an Autonomous Community, in this case, the Community of Madrid, knowingly and with full awareness of that non-compliance," the letter says.
Ayuso wanted to settle the controversy by putting the penthouse up for sale, but the crisis remains alive. The president begins the political course with the wind against her. She finds herself trapped in a tangle that will not be easy for her to get out of and that threatens to become a daily topic between now and the end of the year. To the explanations of counselor García Martín, the documentation that Planifica Madrid is forced to make public by the Transparency Law will be added, which will reveal until now unknown details such as who, how and why this luxury home was chosen for the president.
